Many businesses are struggling to make sense of Twitter, but even if it strikes you as an enigma or hype, consider this: many of your customers are already there.

Twitter has more than 100 million users and is becoming a free forum for business. Companies are using Twitter to engage in highly personalized interactions — sometimes right to the phones in our pockets. Twitter recently introduced a program of “promoted tweets” that will display ads in some search results, although this program remains limited to a select group of Twitter partners, including Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull and Sony Pictures. Eventually, Twitter plans to offer advertising more broadly, but until then small businesses can continue to make productive use of the service.

FIRST OF ALL, LISTEN What are people saying about your company? Unlike conversations by phone or e-mail, Twitter conversations usually are not private, and listening is fair game.

One company that has built a sophisticated listening post is Avaya, a global communications provider in Basking Ridge, N.J. Avaya uses third-party applications to track mentions of its brand name and has automated alerts for dozens of keywords for products and competitors, said Paul Dunay, Avaya’s global managing director of services and social marketing.

The company follows up to 2,500 Twitter postings a week, often from clients with technical issues, he said. “If we see those, we’re on them in 15 or 20 minutes,” Mr. Dunay said. “That’s providing killer support and customer delight.”

Avaya also looks for sales leads and opportunities to replace competitors. One day, a company posted about its quest for a new phone system. Mr. Dunay replied, introduced himself and offered to put this person in touch with an Avaya strategic consultant. “Within 13 days, we were able to convert that one tweet into a $250,000 sale,” he said.

DO NOT BE BORING Humphry Slocombe is a 14-seat ice cream shop in San Francisco that has gathered nearly 300,000 Twitter followers — far more than giant competitors like Ben & Jerry’s, Baskin-Robbins or Dairy Queen. Not bad for a small business that began posting on Twitter only last year.

“We started using Twitter just because we have zero money for any kind of advertising or promotion whatsoever,” said Sean Vahey, co-owner and operations manager. “We have a product that changes daily. Our customers were asking, ‘How do you keep us up to date on the different flavors?’ Twitter was the perfect answer.”

But there was an issue. Mr. Vahey’s first impression of Twitter could be summed up in six characters: boring. So he decided to make his account edgy, occasionally rude and always entertaining. The shop’s Twitter bio: “ice cream with attitude.”

The store posts updates to its menu, which features 100 ice cream flavors including prosciutto, milk chocolate tarragon and foie gras. “As soon as we put it on Twitter it moves,” Mr. Vahey said. “It’s an instant response.”

Photo

Chrysta Wilson, who owns the small Los Angeles bakery Kiss My Bundt, uses Twitter as a virtual focus group for new recipies. Credit
J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times

A LIVE VERSION OF A FAQ Some companies use Twitter as a customer service desk. Whole Foods is one of the largest retailers on Twitter, with 1.7 million followers. Marla Erwin, a Whole Foods staff member who oversees the account, estimates that customer questions generate three-quarters of its Twitter traffic.

To Whole Foods, Twitter is a live version of a FAQ. The theory is that if one person has a question, others will as well. One sign of a company that engages with followers is a page filled with @ symbols (Twitter shorthand for a reply to a specific person). “You absolutely have to remember you are part of a community and you have to offer value to that community,” Ms. Erwin said. “It’s not about you. If all you do is talk about yourself, your audience will be instantly bored.”

CREATE A FOCUS GROUP Twitter can be your portable focus group — one you do not have to pay for.

Chrysta Wilson owns the small Los Angeles bakery Kiss My Bundt. She likes to experiment with new recipes and use Twitter for customer feedback. “It absolutely is like a focus group, except the beauty of it is I don’t have to go and find people who are interested or knowledgeable about baking,” Ms. Wilson said. “My universe is already there — my Twitter followers and Facebook fans.”

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When Ms. Wilson wanted to try a new maple bacon bundt, she posted about it, put up photos and invited followers to stop by for free samples. Their feedback helped her perfect the recipe, which is now a favorite. She has more than 1,900 followers. “It’s great for getting input — they become your sounding board,” she said. “It’s a way to break out of the business owner’s bubble and get an outsider’s perspective.”

SOAPBOX FOR THINKERS For some, Twitter serves as a high-tech bully pulpit.

Tim Berry has an enviable job. The founder of Palo Alto Software, he stepped away from day-to-day management into an emeritus role of evangelizing about small-business planning and management.

He posts about interesting articles, blog links and anything that strikes him as surprising. “The key thing is being interesting,” he said. Mr. Berry said he believed that his Twitter stream generated 10 to 20 percent of the traffic that came to his company Web site. If he can pique interest and establish himself as a trusted authority, he said, customers are more likely to buy his products and services.

Mari Smith, a social media speaker and trainer who lives by the rule “always be marketing” and has amassed more than 68,000 followers, agreed. Ms. Smith will not post a traditional “push” marketing message that explicitly advertises an event like a webinar. Instead, she might post something that arouses people’s curiosity and include a link.

For Ms. Smith, Twitter is a way to maintain a personal touch — and scale it up. “Whether I’m chitchatting, retweeting, @replying, talking about my personal life, my products or services, it’s all marketing,” she said. “People buy people before they buy products or service. They’re buying into you.”

The payoff: Ms. Smith said half her business came through Twitter.

STARTING SMALL IS FINE Quick! What famous architect designed the pyramid outside the Louvre in Paris?

If you saw that question move across your Twitter stream (the answer is I. M. Pei), you must have been following La Boulange, a French cafe and bakery with 11 locations in the San Francisco area. La Boulange has fun with Twitter posts, like a Twitter trivia bingo contest or daily posts of New Year’s resolutions like “eat more chocolate.” La Boulange has about 1,000 followers, but for a local business, even a few hundred loyal followers can be extremely valuable. “Twitter makes it possible for small business to retain that personal touch,” said Anamitra Banerji, senior product manager at Twitter. “Interacting with a Twitter account is almost like walking into a corner store. There’s a closeness and intimacy that small businesses have really leveraged on Twitter.”

So it is with La Boulange. “It’s not so much about the number of followers,” said Emily Doan, La Boulange chief of operations and principal Twitterer. “It’s about making that connection and relationship to people. It’s keeping our company fresh in their minds each day.”

A version of this article appears in print on May 27, 2010, on Page B6 of the New York edition with the headline: Reach Customers In 140 Characters, All of Them Free. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe